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Saint Thomas Aquinas

Sunday, December 7, 2014

A Brief Thought On The Immaculate Conception

On December 8th, 1854 Blessed Pius IX declared
the following a non-negotiable teaching that must be accepted by anyone worthy
of claiming the Christian name.

“Wherefore, in humility and fasting, we
unceasingly offered our private prayers as well as the public prayers of the
Church to God the Father through his Son, that he would deign to direct and
strengthen our mind by the power of the Holy Spirit. In like manner did we
implore the help of the entire heavenly host as we ardently invoked the
Paraclete. Accordingly, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the honor of
the Holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin
Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and for the
furtherance of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ our
Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own: "We declare,
pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed
Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and
privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the
Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is
a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly
by all the faithful."Hence, if anyone shall dare -- which God
forbid! -- to think otherwise than as has been defined by us, let him know and
understand that he is condemned by his own judgment; that he has suffered
shipwreck in the faith; that he has separated from the unity of the Church; and
that, furthermore, by his own action he incurs the penalties established by law
if he should are to express in words or writing or by any other outward means
the errors he think in his heart. “

We should ponder these words concerning Our
Blessed Lady’s Immaculate Conception. What does this definition mean for us
practicing the Christian faith today? If we dig a little deeper we find a
buried treasure, which opens for us an ocean of mercy and forgiveness, and even
a spiritual freedom that goes beyond any natural freedom we may have. Contrary
to modern belief, Our Lady is not a side dish along a main course, which we can
choose to pass on to make more room for the main course. In fact, Our Lady is
integrally a part of the main course, which is Jesus Christ Himself.

Without the Blessed Virgin Mary’s sinlessness
and her fiat to God’s plan of His Incarnation, salvation would not have come
about. Far be it for one to dismiss the manner in which Christ chose to take on
a human nature and bring salvation to mankind! Those who demean the role of the Blessed Mother in God’s plan
should not boastfully claim the name Christian, for they are not. Why then is
the Blessed Mother of God such an issue for many who call themselves Christian? The reason is they have been manipulated by
diabolical disorientation. The Blessed Virgin Mary is prime target of the
devil, and he labors to lead people away from her.

The devil, who desires to lead men to their
eternal damnation, constantly seeks to undermine core tenets of the Christian
faith. There are three main graces that satan and his minions try to deprive
the human race. The first is the Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ, given to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The second
is the papacy, since the pope signifies and promulgates the unity of the
Christian faith. The third is the Blessed Virgin Mary, since sin has never
touched her, and she represents the most complete assent of faith that any
human being can accomplish. As a good friend of mine, a longtime priest of 50
years plus and an exorcist has said many times,“The devil has
deprived the Protestants of all three. They have no Mass, they deny the papacy
and they deny Mary." The third target of the devil is what I will touch on here,
the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Blessed Virgin’s Immaculate Conception,
in which she was conceived without sin, was a gift from God to His mother. Through
this gift she brought Christ into the world, His Incarnation. Through
her fiat she participated in man’s redemption. Early theologians of the Church
referred to her as the ‘New Eve’, and to Jesus the ‘New Adam’. Saint Justin
Martyr in the second century illustrates this idea. “(The Son of God) became
man through the Virgin that the disobedience caused by the serpent might be
destroyed in the same way in which it had originated. For Eve, while a virgin incorrupt,
conceived the word, which proceeded from the serpent, and brought forth
disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary was filled with faith and joy when
the Angel Gabriel told her the glad tidings.... And through her was he born…” We
also look to St Ireneaus of Lyon who around the year 200 wrote the following, “Just
as Eve, wife of Adam, yet still a virgin, became by her disobedience the cause
of death for herself and the whole human race, so Mary, too, espoused yet a
Virgin, became by her obedience the cause of salvation for herself and the
whole human race.... And so it was that the knot of Eve's disobedience was
loosed by Mary's obedience. For what the virgin Eve bound fast by her refusal
to believe, this the Virgin Mary unbound by her belief.”

There is a correlation here to Mary’s
sinlessness and the fact that Eve also entered into existence without the stain
of original sin. Although Eve started off with what we may refer to for lack of
a better term, as “original grace” Eve chose to disobey God, and along with
Adam plunged the human race into the darkness of original sin. Mary however is
unique being that God chose to give her a special grace of avoiding the general
fallen nature of the human race after the fall. She not only did not have original sin, she also never sinned because of God's special grace. She is the only human being
that has remained pure from the stain of sin. St Ambrose of Milan, doctor of the
Church wrote, “Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a virgin whom grace has
made inviolate, free of every stain." For this the devil hates her more
than anyone, since she was never touched by sin. Because of this very fact, she
is above the devil and all of those in the angelic realm. She is indeed the
Queen of Heaven and earth and the devil fears her because she does more to bring souls to God than any other. She is also the one who crushes his head!

'Hodegetria' "She Who Shows the Way"

What then is Mary’s active role in our lives?
What does her Immaculate Conception mean to us today? For one, she looks to
help us gain the kingdom of heaven, and live a life of God’s fulfillment here
on earth. She is God’s chosen instrument of special graces. We petition Our Mother in
heaven for her prayers and intercession so that we may be open to doing God’s will and receive God's grace.
We can also so look to her and follow her example of perfect obedience to Christ.
Her intercession goes hand in hand with Christ’s plan for our salvation and she is our protector. When
we ask for her intercession and give honor to her, we also give honor and glory
to God, since He is the origin of her intercession. One cannot deny hailing her
as “blessed” (Luke 1:48) without insulting God Himself. Although Our Lady has
many titles, it is no coincidence that true Christians in the Catholic Church have
always hailed her “Blessed” by calling her ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary.’ Why do Protestants deny her this title?

As we welcome the Feast of the Immaculate
Conception we would do well to invigorate our love and petitions to Our Blessed
Lady. As one without sin, she looks upon us with eyes of mercy and wants to guide
us along the way to ultimate union with God. Our Blessed Mother is an integral
part of every Christian’s spiritual life. There is no one the devil fears more
outside of the God than the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is to her that we cling to
as we continue to strive to live a Christian life in a culture that opposes God more and
more as each day passes. Devotion to the Blessed Mother is a blessing from God and
anyone trying to persevere in the spiritual life today would be a fool to try
and do it without her.

St Ephraim the Syrian who died in the year
373 wrote a prayer to which we should make our own.

“O pure and immaculate and
likewise blessed Virgin, who art the sinless Mother of thy Son, the mighty Lord
of the universe, thou who art inviolate and altogether holy, the hope of the
hopeless and sinful, we sing thy praises. We bless thee, as full of every
grace, thou who didst bear the God-Man: we all bow low before thee; we invoke
thee and implore thine aid. Rescue us, O holy and inviolate Virgin, from every
necessity that presses upon us and from all the temptations of the devil. Be
our intercessor and advocate at the hour of death and judgement; deliver us
from the fire that is not extinguished and from the outer darkness; make us
worthy of the glory of thy Son, O dearest and most clement Virgin Mother. Thou
indeed art our only hope, most sure and sacred in God's sight, to whom be honor
and glory, majesty and dominion, for ever and ever, world without end. Amen.”

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